Formula 1

F1 News: Christian Horner Sheds Light On What Was Behind Red Bull DRS Issues

With Red Bull adamant to shed weight from their cars, it sounds as though they may have been a bit eager when it came to the DRS and this may have been a factor in the issues Max Verstappen had during the Spanish Grand Prix.

Verstappen suffered from DRS issues as he was trying to overtake Mercedes driver George Russell, pushing him to shout down the radio in anger. Eventually, the DRS flap opened and he was able to overtake the British driver and eventually take first place, but since then fans have wondered where the issue stemmed from.

“What I thought was interesting was Christian Horner saying on the grid ‘well, we have been taking weight out of things’,” Ted Kravitz said at the time. “Does he mean they have been taking weight out of that DRS actuator and that then has led to it failing?

“If it did, that’s not good, that’s a salutary lesson. If that’s just something they can fix quickly for Monaco, that’s fine.

“But clearly, if they have taken weight out of it and it’s failed, that’s a very bad thing and the person who put mass and weight into it in the first place said ‘aha, told you so, told you it had to be heavy’.”

Red Bull team principal then offered some information as the race came to a close:

“I think it needs further analysis,” the team principal told reporters. “Of course, we are chasing every ounce of performance and when weight is a factor as well, maybe we’ve been too ambitious there.

“But I think we need to understand exactly what the issue is because we thought we had a fix and unfortunately it didn’t prove to be a reliable fix for the whole of the race.”

Red Bull has been battling weight issues since the start of the season as the team tries to keep the car under the maximum weight of 798kg. But despite this, Max Verstappen has won each race he’s been able to finish. Horner still doesn’t believe he’s unbeatable, however.

“Not at all, because the competitors are very strong and I think we’ve had our moments, but every race we have won, bar this one, has been on the absolute limit.

“I think Max is driving extremely well and Checo is doing a great job, but I expect it to be a very tight competition throughout the season.”

Alex Harrington

Alex started racing at a young age so certainly knows his way around a car and a track. He can just about put a sentence together too, which helps. He has a great interest in the latest models, but would throw all of his money at a rusty old French classic and a 300ZX. Contact: [email protected]

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